Balance critical in development

We are asking for trouble if we ignore revelations about creatures that have either become extinct or are on the edge of extinction.

In Australia alone, it seems that we’re hearing news every second day about the steady disappearance of some unique marsupial, parrot or other wild animal or plant. It’s a sad indictment on us all.

Sorry, but a couldn’t-care-less shrug of the shoulders doesn’t cut it with some of us with a genuine concern for our natural assets and life in general.

Regardless of our political beliefs and inclinations, for the sake of ourselves, we all need to be a little bit ‘green’. A healthy environment equals healthy human society.

We are, after all, part of the web of life and must always take our responsibilities as the planet’s apex predator and environmental manager seriously.

We have been notoriously guilty in the past of adopting tunnel-vision development, often ignoring or failing to understand the complexities of eco-systems responsible for a balanced environment.

We only need to consider how, in the name of survival, progress and wealth and in some cases ambivalence, the extent of which we have changed parts of Australia forever.

This has happened since humans first walked on the continent and accelerated with arrival of European sensibilities.

We’ve let everything from cats and foxes to feral camels, horses, buffalos, pigs, toads, fish and birds run, fly or swim wild, and exotic weeds to escape and flourish.

We’ve also, at times without thinking or knowing, inadvertently dismantled critical natural landform and habitat. Our report card is more than slightly tainted.

Thankfully, we have a greater awareness these days of a need to prioritise sustainability and balance in development. There is also recognition that we have much work to do, where possible, to help environmental assets recover.

This doesn’t mean shelving any major projects that might mean clearing native bushland.

It means working with the environment, compensating where we can and in some cases creating what some might consider artificial ways of resurrecting something of value.

There is little left in our part of the world that qualifies as being ‘pristine’, which means that now, doing nothing will result in nothing.

In the Wimmera-mallee we have considerable natural environmental resources such as national and state parks and wilderness areas that have considerable conservation-project potential.

These are resources we should explore further, albeit with an understanding that everything comes with a cost and somehow needs to be financially self-sustaining.

We need to do something. With every fragile species that disappears, we lose a chip from the human soul. One day there won’t be any chips left.